PITTSBURGH, PA -
Continuing efforts to cut acid rain and smog-producing nitrogen oxides
(NOx) have prompted the U.S. Department of Energy to partner with industry
experts to develop advanced NOx-control technologies. With the selection
of five new NOx-control projects, the Energy Department continues as a
leader in developing advanced technologies to achieve environmental compliance
for the nation’s fleet of coal-fired power plants.
Although today’s NOx-control workhorses, such as low-NOx burners
and selective catalytic reduction (SCR), have been successfully deployed
to address existing regulations, proposed regulations will require deeper
cuts in NOx emissions, at a greater number of generating facilities. Many
of the smaller affected plants will not be able to cost-effectively use
today’s technologies; these are the focus of the advanced technologies
selected in this announcement.
With this new round of selections, the Energy Department has asked industry
to reduce energy consumption, address the impacts of new technologies
on pulverized coal-fired utility plants, and cut the costs of burning
high-volatile bituminous coal. The overall goal is to prepare for future
regulations by reducing emissions below 0.12 pounds of NOx per million
Btus, while lowering costs by 25 percent compared to SCR.
The selected projects and their descriptions follow:
- ALSTOM Power Inc., Windsor, Conn.
Enhanced Combustion Low-NOx Pulverized Coal Burner
ALSTOM will develop an enhanced combustion, low-NOx pulverized
coal burner, and integrate the burner into its own state-of-the-art
low-NOx firing systems. This integrated approach will provide an option
for meeting proposed legislation calling for less than 0.15 pounds
of NOx per million Btus at three-fourths the cost of SCR. It will have
almost no impact on related balance-of-plant issues when a high-volatile
bituminous coal is burned. ALSTOM will conduct large pilot-scale testing
in its industrial-scale burner facility in Windsor, Conn. When coupled
with computational modeling, the test data will provide the information
ALSTROM needs to design, construct, and demonstrate a commercial version
of an enhanced combustion, low-NOx pulverized coal burner. (Project
duration: 20 months; Total cost: $1,794,541)
- The Babcock & Wilcox Company, Barberton, Ohio
Advanced In-Furnace NOx Control for Wall and Cyclone-Fired Boilers
Babcock & Wilcox will develop and demonstrate an advanced NOx-control
technology to reach an ultra-low emission target of 0.10 pounds of NOx
per million Btus when burning high-volatile eastern bituminous coal.
Along with co-participant American Air Liquide, Babcock & Wilcox
will use a “layered” strategy that combines deep air staging,
continuous corrosion monitoring, advanced combustion-control enhancements,
and proprietary combustion techniques involving oxygen injection. Investigators
will evaluate the best way to use oxygen in wall-fired and cyclone-fired
power plants during pilot-scale activities at Babcock & Wilcox’s
small boiler simulator in Alliance, Ohio. Guided by the test results,
they will conduct a commercial-scale assessment using numerical modeling.
Part of the assessment will include a detailed economic analysis to
compare the NOx-removal cost of the proposed technology to the cost
of SCR. (Project duration: 24 months; Total cost: $1,358,966)
- Fossil Energy Research Corporation (FERCo), Laguna Hills, Calif.
In Situ Device for Real-Time Catalyst Deactivation Measurements in Full-Scale
SCR Systems
FERCo will use a three-pronged approach to demonstrate how the operating
costs of SCR can be reduced. FERCo and its team will first develop an
in situ device to collect real-time SCR performance data by continuously
measuring catalyst activity. As the data is collected, it will be analyzed
by an existing catalyst management software program previously developed
by FERCo and J.E. Cichanowicz, Inc. (JEC). The results of this analysis
will provide timely information about catalyst deactivation to enhance
decision-making about boiler operating conditions that negatively impact
catalyst activity, and subsequent catalyst replacement to lessen overall
SCR operating costs. Joining FERCo and JEC, Southern Company will provide
the host site and the Brand-Gaus Company will provide measurement instrumentation.
(Project duration: 32 months; Total cost: $440,351)
- Reaction Engineering International (REI), Salt Lake City, Utah
Cyclone Boiler Field Testing of Advanced Layered NOx-Control Technology
Building on previous work by REI, this project will apply field
testing and combustion modeling to evaluate a technology called advanced
layered technology application (ALTA) as a means to achieve emissions
below 0.15 pounds of NOx per million Btus in a cyclone boiler.
The technology combines deep staging from overfire air, rich reagent
injection, and a novel selective non-catalytic reduction approach. Tests
will also evaluate the impact on balance-of-plant issues such as the
amount of unburned carbon in the ash, slag tapping, waterwall corrosion,
ammonia slip, and heat distribution. Other project participants include
AmerenUE and the Electric Power Research Institute. (Project duration:
12 months; Total cost: $481,000)
- Reaction Engineering International (REI), Salt Lake City, Utah
Pilot-Scale Demonstration of Advanced Layered NOx -Control Technology
for Coal-Fired Boilers
In another selection, REI will develop and verify the performance
of a fundamentally different approach of burner design for NOx control.
The objective of the burner design is to achieve homogeneity of the
combustion products in the boiler. Not only does this create ideal conditions
for combustion-related control of NOx, it also results in a stoichiometry
and temperature distribution above the burners that is ideal for the
chemistry involved in rich reagent injection technology. In order to
validate the technology in terms of NOx control, balance-of-plant impacts,
and economic competitiveness, REI will conduct pilot-scale testing to
optimize the near-burner combustion system and reagent injection, as
well as computational modeling to guide the optimization and demonstrate
its promise at full-scale. Other participants include the University
of Utah and the Electric Power Research Institute. (Project duration:
12 months; Total cost: $212,000)
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